Hitler's Role in the Persuection of the Jews by the
Nazi Regime: Electronic Version,
by Heinz Peter Longerich

3. HITLER AND THE BEGINNING OF AN ANTI-JEWISH POLICY IN 1933

3.1From the very beginning, Hitler, as head of the National Socialist government, pursued a consistently antisemitic policy. Above all, he aspired to remove German Jews from public positions and to segregate them as much as possible from the German population. The decisive role which Hitler played in the enforcement of the Nazi government's anti-Jewish policy is apparent in the organisation of the "boycott" of Jewish businesses on 1 April 1933. Although it was Goebbels, Propaganda Chief of the Party and newly appointed Minister of Propaganda, who organised the embargo on Jewish establishments, the decisive initiative was Hitler's. This was confirmed by Goebbels in his diary entry of 26 March 1933: according to this account Hitler called him to Berchtesgaden in order to inform him of his "resolution" according to which one could

only deal with the slanderous attacks from abroad if we lay hold of the originators or at least those who stand to profit from them- namely the Jews who live in Germany and who have remained unmolested.31

3.2Moreover, Hitler took over the full responsibility for the call for a boycott committee consisting of leading NSDAP officials when he made it clear in the Ministerial Conference of 28 March 1933 "that he, the Chancellor of the Reich himself had arranged for the proclamation issued by the National Socialist party".32 On 6 April 1933, Hitler once again explicitly acknowledged his antisemitic policy when on the occasion of a reception of leading medical officials he declared that

through the coming eradication of Jewish intellectuals from the cultural and spiritual life of Germany, Germany's natural title to spiritual leadership, which is characteristic for it, must be done justice.33

3.3Immediately after the boycott, still in April 1933, the Hitler regime passed three antisemitic laws: Jews were largely excluded from public office and the bar respectively34 and a quota for Jewish pupils and students was introduced.35 On the other hand, a series of utterances by Hitler from the first months of the "Third Reich" seem to give the impression, on first glance, that he might have been exercising a rather more moderate influence on the "Jewish policy" of the government and had turned against the more radical elements of the Party.

3.4Thus a pronouncement by Hitler which was issued on 10 March 1933 opposed the "individual actions" (Einzelaktionen) of party activists which might disturb the functioning of Jewish and other businesses.36 Further, a planned campaign against the Federal Court of Leipzig by the local Party organisation was stopped by a personal directive by Hitler.37 In the cabinet deliberation on the law concerning lawyers on 7 April, Hitler opposed further plans for exclusion and took the position that one should "at the moment ... only regulate that which is necessary"; legal discrimination against Jewish doctors - an official proposal of this kind had been submitted to the cabinet - was considered "not necessary for the moment".38

3.5Hitler's attitude of apparent restraint stemmed wholly from tactical considerations. Hitler wanted to avoid unnecessary quarrels with his conservative coalition partners; he didn't want to put new stress on the already difficult economic situation or to cement the "Third Reich's" isolation in foreign affairs.39 In his address to the recently appointed Reich Governors on 6 July 1933, Hitler explicitly articulated his foreign policy concerns: "To reopen the Jewish question means to agitate the whole world once again".40

3.6In fact, with the take-over of power in 1933, Hitler intended - over and above the assorted antisemitic laws - deliberately to create a special legal status for German Jews: to place them under "alien status" as had been projected in the NSDAP Party Programme of 1920, and gradually to diminish their position in German society. His earlier and considerably more far-reaching plans in the area of racial laws and the reasons why these plans had been deferred were clearly elucidated in the report of his speech41 to the Reich Governors` Conference, held on 28 September 1933:

As concerns the Jewish question, we were not able to give way. For him, the Chancellor, it would have been preferable if we could have aggravated the treatment of the Jews step by step - beginning with a citizenship law and from that point on becoming gradually more and more severe with them. The boycott instigated by the Jews however obliged us to resort immediately to harsh counter measures. Abroad they complain mainly about the legal treatment of the Jew as a second-class citizens. They argue that the most we can do is to refuse citizenship to Jews who present a danger to the State.